Broken Nest
by Tie-dyed Trickster
Summary: Geta's a little weird sometimes, even beyond the general quirkiness. And it's past time we all found out why. The final secrets are being revealed... Part 10 of the Geta!verse, two-shot
1. Space Mechanic

_Set about two weeks after_ _In the Rain_ _._

"You'll need these tonight."

Raditz looked up from his breakfast to see Vegeta holding his hand out, a pair of odd pills in his palm.

"Only if you want to go outside, though," the shorter saiyan added, "If you stay inside and keep your windows shut, you'll be fine."

"What's going on tonight?" Kakarrot looked up from his food curiously, "Is something coming an' we gotta hide from it? Is it a strong enemy? Can we fight it instead of hiding? There's three of us, and you're really strong, and I bet that Yamsha guy would-"

"Our going to fight this would be kinda incredibly counter-productive," Vegeta looked awkward, "You see, it's the full moon tonight and- wait, you guys… change… when you look at the full moon too, right?"

He looked so worried that Raditz couldn't help giving a snort of laughter. "It's called the Oozaru form, and, yes, all saiyans who still have their tails are capable of taking it by looking at the full moon or an appropriate equivalent."

"…appropriate equivalent?" Vegeta asked nervously.

"Hn, guess you wouldn't know about it." Raditz held a hand up and formed a sphere of ki. "This is the first part of the False Moon technique. I toss this up and let it mix with the atmosphere, and the light it makes would simulate the lunar radiation necessary for the transformation."

Vegeta looked a little panicked at this. "Oh kami, don't throw it, _don't throw it_!"

Raditz snorted again and dismissed the orb, but Kakarrot responded before he could.

"Oh don't worry, Raditz used to summon the moon ball all the time on the ship without activating it, he's _good_ at dismissing it. He did it whenever he was feeling mopey or-"

"Shut UP, brat!" Raditz snapped, whacking his brother on the head. Kakarrot clutched his bruised skull and glared at him.

"Evil older brother!"

"Punk-ass little brother! Anyway, you don't have to worry about us turning Oozaru and rampaging," the tall saiyan turned back to Vegeta, "I learned control before Vegetasei- before. And I taught Kakarrot a few years ago."

The should-be prince stared at him blankly. "Rampage? Why would you do that? I was just worried you'd get caught unawares and break your ship or my house by mistake."

"…Vegeta, what happens when you look at the full moon?"

He shrugged. "Oh, you know – turn into a giant mon- er, 'Oozaru,' have to sit on the beach all night to make sure I don't squash or break anything, retrieve everything I can that was in my pockets in the morning and find some new clothes. Really inconvenient, really boring. Why, what happens to you?"

Raditz stared at him blankly for a moment, then stood up. "Okay, that's it – I'm looking your attack pod over."

"My what now?"

"Your attack pod, the vessel you arrived in," Raditz disappeared into his ship for a minute, then came out again with a small bag that clinked and his scouter, into which he was slotting a small disc. "Is it nearby? It would have been spherical and metal."

"Oh! You mean my nest!" Vegeta blinked, "It's inside. Why?"

"Because I want to know _exactly_ what went wrong with it," Raditz snapped, "Losing your memories? Fine, I can accept that, blows to the head happen. But without proper training Oozaru state should be at most a hazy dream of destroying everything and waking up to find out you did, not a minor inconvenience!" he made his way towards the house grimly.

"Hey, wait a moment!" Vegeta followed him with a slightly worried expression, "You're not going to take it all the way apart, are you? Only I don't have another place to sleep, and I'm kinda attached to it…"

"You _sleep in it_?!" Raditz gave him a disbelieving look over one shoulder, then shook his head, "What am I saying, of course you do. And I'm just planning going to open some panels and take a look at the insides; I shouldn't need to do more."

"Don't worry, Geta," Kakarrot added, patting his arm reassuringly, if somewhat greasily, "Raditz is a great mechanic. And even if he _does_ have to take it apart, he'll be able to put it together again better than it was before!"

"I don't _want it_ better, I want it _the same_ ," Vegeta grumbled as they walked into the house.

Kakarrot waved a dismissive hand. "He can probably do that too. Might be harder, though – poor repair jobs make his hands itch."

 **OoOoOoOoOoO**

Half an hour or so later, Bulma landed in the clearing in her jetcopter. She really needed to get a proper lab set up out here as well as her capsule house – these trips between Capsule Corp and the village were getting annoying.

The first thing she heard when she exited her vehicle were voices coming from Geta's house, which became distinct as she opened the door.

"How do you still have higher brain functions?!"

"That's not very nice."

"No, seriously, _how_? Whoever did maintenance on this last was either an _idiot_ or really _was_ trying to kill you! There's cracks in the exhaust tubes, the fuel lines, **and** the air filtration system, meaning you'd have had a mix of exhaust and fuel vapor flowing straight into the main chamber, along with the supposedly **fresh** air. A combination of fumes like that – you should be brain-dead, if not **dead** dead!"

Bulma walked in to see Geta and Kakarrot watching Raditz fiddle with wires and tubes inside Geta's nest sphere, one of the metal panels flipped up.

"And this wiring!" Raditz added with a level of indignation that intrigued the blue-haired woman, "Look at it! I've got better stuff on the Frag, and it's been over a year since I could get my hands on any decent quality parts! And these nav crystals! They're not even red, they're _pink_! What were they _**thinking**_?!" his tail was lashing angrily as he continued his diatribe.

"Maybe that's why I can control my Oozaru state?" Geta suggested from where he sat perched on the table.

Raditz snorted derisively, "It doesn't work like that."

"Well then maybe I learned how before I lost my memories and it stuck, like with the kata."

"…that's actually a more likely possibility. But you shouldn't be able to sit still in it – not easily," the tall saiyan growled, not turning from the vessel, "It's a form that's **meant** for battle, for action! Sitting still in it should be like drinking a jug of twerig and trying to meditate afterwards!"

"What's twerig?" Bulma asked, filing the 'Oozaru' thing away for later and going to look over Raditz's should as best she could while avoiding his tail.

"It's a stimulating drink, extremely bitter," he glared over his shoulder at her, "And when did you get here?"

"Just now. So this twerig stuff is like space coffee?"

"How should I know?" he scowled, then turned back to the pod, possibly to find more things to be indignant about.

Bulma circled around to try and get a better look at what he was doing, then squeaked as Geta caught her under the armpits and lifted her on top of it, hovering over her to hold her steady on the domed surface.

"Warn me next time," the blue-haired scientist grumbled, but she looked down at what Raditz was doing eagerly enough. This was her first time seeing the inner workings of the net – Geta had always been adamant about not letting her open it up before, in case she couldn't put it back together or (and she suspected this was the real reason) in case she ran off with bits of it. "What's with the scouter? I wouldn't have thought the ship had ki. Besides, I thought Geta was teaching you how to sense it."

Raditz glanced up at her with a bemused look. "Scouters aren't just for sensing energy. They're also communication devices, though that function's disabled on this one, and can be used to read data discs, which is what I'm using it for now." Reaching out, he swung the panel closed again, then fiddled with it a little, presumably securing it in place. "Anyway, this certainly explains why the prince-"

"Geta."

"The _prince_ ," Raditz repeated, glaring at the youth in question, "Is so-"

"Brain damaged?" Geta interrupted sweetly.

"-different." Raditz finished, still glaring and casually blocking Bulma's hand when she reached for his scouter. She kept going for it, un-dissuaded, so he refocused the glare on her. "Cut that out!"

"No way! That thing was neat **before** I found out it had blueprints or technical manuals or whatever you were looking at with it! And if you think I'm going to pass up a chance to look at genuine spacecraft data, then you don't know me very well!"

"…we've only been here seventeen days, I _don't_ know you very well."

"Irrelevant, and also your own fault for not paying attention."

"You haven't even been here for half the time!" the tall saiyan protested, getting up and backing away a step, which took him out of Bulma's reach.

"Hey, that's cheating! Geta, let me down!" sliding off the nest/attack pod, Bulma followed the retreating figure. "And is it _my_ fault that Capsule Corp relies on my genius to maintain its world-class status in the scientific and technological communities? Now gimme the scouter, monkey-man!"

To her surprise, Raditz and Kakarrot both growled at her last comment, and whereas his tone had been annoyed before, now it was dangerous. "Don't call us monkeys. I'll let you get away with it once, because the prince likes you and you couldn't have known, but it's a bad slur to call a saiyan that. Don't do it again."

Bulma blinked and backed up a step, as though just remembering that the man in front of her was not human and was strong enough to snap her neck with less effort than she's snap a toothpick. Then her jaw firmed and she stepped forwards again, one hand on her hip, the other extended before her demandingly. "Fine, gimme the scouter, _saiyan-man_."

Raditz stared at her for a moment, then snorted and handed it over. "Not like you'll be able to read it, anyway."

"I'm a genius, I'll figure it out." Bulma slipped the device on, then gave a start. "Oh. Well, that's convenient."

"What is?"

"The writing system you're using – it's Standard," Bulma began to smile. "I can read Standard."

The tall saiyan didn't respond for a moment while the blue-haired scientist played with the scouter's controls and made excited noises. Then he did. "All right, how in Dagore's name do you know Universal Standard?! This planet doesn't have space travel yet and it's too out of the way for regular visitors or would-be conquerors – that is one of the reasons I chose it!"

"What?" Bulma pulled herself away from an engine schematic with an almost physical wrench to focus on the man before her.

"How do you know Universal Standard?!"

"Oh, so that's what its full name is! Geta taught it to me, a bit over a year ago now." Bulma responded simply.

"And how did he know he knew it?!" Raditz demanded.

"It's what my label's written in," Geta piped up from where he's reseated himself on his table. "And I still knew how to talk when I woke up, so I guess reading is similar? Oh, speaking of which, we should probably teach you Chikyuugo, since you're going to be here for awhile."

"Your label?"

Kakarrot was the one who asked this time. He'd gone back outside while Bulma examined the contents of the scouter and returned with a couple plates of food. He'd been eating them as the grown-ups discussed things.

In response, Geta reached deep into the pocket where he kept it and pulled out the chain and disc he still carried most places, worn shiny from years of being kept in various pockets. "I was wearing it when I woke up. I think it's a nametag or something."

"…it's an ID badge, the kind Frieza's soldiers generally wear," Raditz said quietly, the sight of the tag dispelling his frustration. He walked over and lifted the small disc from where it hung dangling on its chain, twisting it back and forth. He smiled when he saw the melted side and its carved sigil. "This side should have information on it – your identification code, your rank in Frieza's forces, your formal title. You must have melted all that off and carved this instead."

"What is it, anyway?" Geta held the tag up to eye level so he could look at the sigil, "I've never been able to figure it out, and it's kinda really annoying, not knowing."

The taller saiyan chuckled. "You won't like it, but that's the crest of the royal house of Vegetasei, your highness."

"…still not buying the prince thing."

Raditz glowered at him. "What do I have to do to prove that I'm telling the truth about this?!"

Geta shrugged, totally unrepentant. "I wouldn't bother, to be honest – I'm told I can be ungodly stubborn about certain issues."

"I supposed I shouldn't be surprised at that – that's how you were as a brat, from what I remember hearing. Stubborn, proud, powerful, totally confident in your own strength, a model saiyan." Raditz grumbled, though he was struggling not to smile. "I imagine there aren't many would dare alter their badge like that. You must have done it in the pod before you lost consciousness or shortly before you were sent on your mission."

Geta tilted his head to the side, eyeing Raditz. "You don't act like how you described."

He looked away. "I'm not a model saiyan."

"Yeah, he's the pride of the saiyan race!" Kakarrot spoke up again, expression innocent except for a wicked gleam in his eye.

Raditz pounced faster than Kakarrot could dodge and grabbed him by the head, lifting him to eye level. "We're planet-side, brat, so I can't throw you out the airlock, but don't think that means you're safe."

"Prove it!" Kakarrot challenged, arms folded.

"Fine! Excuse us a moment." Raditz walked out of the house and took off, still holding his brother by the head.

About twenty minutes later, Geta was starting to get worried. And he wasn't sure if Bulma had noticed the other two had left yet. And then, just as he was about to go after them, the brothers returned, dripping wet and smelling like the sea. Raditz looked smug and Kakarrot was sulking.

"He proved it."

"So, why all the different schematics?"

The three saiyans all looked at the blue-haired scientist, but Geta was the one to respond.

"I don't suppose you noticed Kakarrot and Raditz left for awhile there and are now dripping seawater on the floor?"

"Really?" Bulma gave them a cursory once-over. "So they are."

"…have you been paying attention to anything else at _all_ since you put that thing on?"

"Not really, no. It's been mostly fight-y boy stuff that, quite frankly, I don't care about." Bulma shrugged. "Now what's with all the schematics? Only two of these ships look anything _like_ yours, and there's plans for at least six others as well as them and the nest pod plans on here. Why?"

"Because that's the disc that had the plans for the ship types I've integrated pieces of into the Frag's engines over the years."

"Ah. And 'the Frag' is your ship?"

"Yup!" Kakarrot answered first, "It's short for 'the Fragment of Vegetasei!'"

There was silence for a moment before Raditz spoke, avoiding everyone's eyes. "I was nine and feeling melodramatic, okay? And it's bad luck to change the proper name of a ship once it's been given, and the gods know we had enough of _that_ without actively courting more!"

"And you understand how all this works?" Bulma gestured to the scouter, "All the machinery filed in here, you understand how it works?"

"I understand a lot more than that." Raditz pushed some wet hair out of his face and watched her warily.

"Cool. Show me." Bulma started out of the house, still wearing the scouter.

"Show you what?"

"The Frag's engine – show me how it all fits together." Bulma turned around, her fists on her hips. "You say you've got a ship that has pieces of all these other ships incorporated into it and it still flies? Prove it."

Raditz scowled and flared his ki, leaving him slightly crusted with salt but dry. "It flies a hell of a lot better than 'fine,' human!"

Bulma regarded him coolly and repeated. "Prove it."

Growling, Raditz shoved past her, heading for the Frag. Bulma followed with a smug swing in her hips that Geta didn't find at all distracting.

After he'd finished not being distracted, he turned to Kakarrot. "So… wanna spar?"

The small boy, who had still been looking somewhat sulky over getting dunked in the ocean, perked right up. "Yeah!"

Half an hour later, Yamcha arrived to train as well, and the spar developed into more of an extreme game of tag. The human male was still struggling to form ki blasts, but while training with Master Moo-shun had discovered a talent for using ki to bolster his speed, something the instructor had encouraged him to pursue. Yamcha was doing so enthusiastically – Turtle school focused on endurance and power, Crane, he had learned, specialized in elaborate techniques, and he was thinking, rather than try to combine the two concepts as he had vaguely been planning to, maybe he would take the Wolf Fang in a new direction instead – speed and precision. So far Yamcha was enjoying the process.

Two hours later still, all three were panting and sweaty (Geta had lowered his power level to midway between the other twos' in order to get a good workout), and Raditz and Bulma emerged from the ship again.

"Well I'll admit, you know what you're doing around an engine," the blue-haired woman said cheerfully.

"Damn straight I do, not like I could reliably get anyone else to fix it if it broke," Raditz snarked, though he looked rather pleased with himself. He'd actually come to enjoy working on the Frag over the years, and a goodly portion of the data discs he'd acquired during that time were blue prints and such for various bits of tech.

"Right," Bulma finally took off Raditz's scouter and handed it back to him, "I'll give you four months. This will be a grace period during which you will acclimatize yourself to being here, learn Chikyuugo, and familiarize yourself with our tools and technology. After that, you'll help me out with projects when I've got a lab set up here – your official title will be my personal technical assistant. Hey Yams, hey Geta, sorry, gotta run – meetings to get to, scientific laws that need reminding whose bitch they are. Oh, and Raditz?" she smirked over her shoulder at him as her jetcopter decapsulized, "What that all boils down to is 'you're hired.' Ciao!"

Then she hopped into her aircraft and was gone in a blast of air and dust.

Raditz blinked, feeling a little blind-sided. "What… just happened?"

"You just impressed the woman who is going to be head of the world's scientific community in a few years, if she isn't already, and landed a job with the biggest technology company on the planet." Yamcha punched him in the arm lightly. "Congratulations!"

Raditz blinked again. "…seriously?"

"I know, right?" Geta came up, wiping his brow, "I always forget that Bulma really is almost as important as she thinks she is. Don't tell her I said that, though – I've got her convinced I still haven't made the connection between her and Capsule Corp. Speaking of which," he reached into a pocket and pulled out a small case, from which he took a pair of capsules. "Back to what started this whole escapade – it's full moon tonight, have a preventative measure!"

"What is it?" Kakarrot took one of the capsules and sniffed it.

Geta grinned and pressed the button on the end of the capsule he still held, then tossed it in the air. There was a puff of smoke and the distinctive 'poi' sound that helped give hoi-poi capsules their name, then Geta hopped up and caught the handle of the open umbrella the capsule had turned into as it gently drifted down. He leaned it on one shoulder like a lady on a promenade, grinning. "Capsulized umbrellas, for all your moonlight-blocking needs." He twirled it around.

The other two saiyans gaped at him.

"What, don't you have anything like that in space?" Yamcha asked curiously.

"That would be a big no," Kakarrot decapsulized his own umbrella, examining it curiously. "Does it go small again, like Bulma's machines? I thought it only worked for tech!"

"Yup, push that button there," Geta pointed, "And you can put pretty much anything in a capsule – they're not hard to get, and most of the simple ones are pretty cheap. But, more importantly, can we keep Bulma from finding out there are no capsules in space?"

Yamcha shook his head sadly. "I doubt it – if they say they have an equivalent, she'll want examples, and silence only works so well with her."

"She's going to be so smug."

"Oh yeah."

"They're not even her inventions, her dad made them!"

"And has a silly detail like that ever stopped her in the past?"

"True."

'So, why do you need to avoid the moonlight?"

Geta faltered for a brief moment, then turned to smile at Yamcha. "What are you talking about?"

"Oh~ no," the ex-bandit folded his arms, "You don't get to wriggle out of this one. You were talking to Raditz and Kakarrot about preventative measures and avoiding the moonlight. Why would you need to do that? You've been out at night when the moon's out before, I've seen you."

"It's a full moon tonight," Raditz responded when Geta squirmed and didn't answer, "He was making sure we wouldn't cause problems in our Oozaru state."

Yamcha's brows drew together in confusion. "What's 'ozaru?' A saiyan thing, I'm assuming?"

"It's the great ape form," Raditz answered, and at the blank look this got him turned sharply to Geta, eyes narrowed. "They don't know about it, do they?" the should-be prince shook his head, not meeting his eyes, "Then they find out tonight. I'm not getting thrown off the planet because this comes out at a bad time!" he turned back to Yamcha, "Contact the woman, let her know her presence is needed tonight." He hesitated, then added, "Is there an open area nearby? We'll need to go there to do this. It will need to be large – several miles at least."

"There's a place at the opposite end of the jungle," Geta's voice was subdued but audible, "I've never been there, but I've seen maps of the area – it's the edge of the Diablo Desert. We should be fine out there." He glanced at Raditz and bit his lip. "Are you sure this is a good idea?"

"No," Raditz gave him a level look, "But it _is_ necessary."

"…can I come with you guys on the Frag if I get thrown off the planet, too?"

"I don't know what you're talking about, Geta, but I highly doubt we're going to react _that_ badly," Yamcha interjected, a little miffed at the shorter man's lack of faith in him and Bulma.

Geta just gave him a gloomy look. "I'm going to hold you to that."

OoOoOoOoO

 _Heh heh heh… looks like it's time for another secret to be revealed, Geta… Also, holy crap, a two-parter!_

 _Anyway, this is one of the big reasons Geta is so different than Vegeta – like Goku, he's also got brain damage, though it's a different type and thus manifests in different ways. One way is, of course, the memory loss, another actually is his ability to sit still in Oozaru form. Also, if you've been paying really close attention, you may have noticed that he sometimes jumps from one emotion to the next very abruptly, with little to no transition between them – this is the reason for that as well. I'll admit, Geta is a spazzy, slightly cracky character, but I_ _ **have**_ _put a lot of thought into him, and why he behaves as he does. ;)_

 _I put a lot of thought into this whole thing, actually – I've got a height and age chart, with notes for characters like Kakarrot who are going to be growing. I've got two timelines as well – the canon timeline and the one for this universe, so I can keep certain events like the Budokai on schedule and figure out when everything happens in relation to everything else. All these things I had to go out and make – it's surprisingly hard to find a detailed timeline for DB and DBZ, accurate height and age charts, too. The passage of time is very important, and I actually keep pretty close track of it when I'm writing stories that cover longer periods of it – I had a simple one for_ _A Ghost's Story_ _, too._

 _I really enjoy the idea of Raditz as a mechanic – it's something that's very easy for me to picture him doing, so he's generally at least a little savvy in this area in any world I put him in, even if it's not shown. Not always, but generally. In case you're wondering, no, he's not on Bulma's level of genius, but he has grown up with space technology, which is a lot more advanced than the majority of Earth technology, and he's worked with it all his life to varying degrees. Therefore his innate understanding of it and how it can be used is much more advanced than most peoples' on Earth. Not to mention, in this universe at least, he_ _ **is**_ _very skilled with it, and enjoys working with it a lot. (also, just fyi, he is still wearing that red armband of his)_

 _On a side note, it's interesting to me just how different Kakarrot and Raditz's skill sets are compared to the rest of the group's – they have no idea how human society works, even in regards to certain basic matters, and abilities that are ordinary to them are extraordinary to us. "So, yeah, then the whole ship rocked, which was how I could tell the leftward thrusters were off, so Kakarrot took over piloting while I went to fix it. …no, he was eight at the time. Yeah, he's been flying the Frag on his own since he was, like, six or something. Why, don't your six-year-olds know how to fly cars or anything?" 'cause, fun fact? Kakarrot's actually a better pilot than Raditz is – it freed him up to do more maintenance around the ship, navigate where they needed to go, and basically take care of both of them._


	2. The Last Secret

"This had better be _really_ important!" Bulma declared as she exited and re-capsulized her jetcopter at the rocky edge of the desert where the rest of the group was gathered, "Because I had to cancel on a _huge_ meeting to get here for this- whatever it is!" she glared at the males before her.

Kakarrot bounced up and down excitedly. "We're gonna spar in Oozaru and Raditz said he'll finally teach me how to fire a ki blast from my mouth!"

Bulma stared at him for a moment. "I don't know what ozzaroo, but the ki thing sounds like a recipe for heartache and pain."

Raditz shrugged from where he was standing nearby, unconcerned. "Better to teach him than have him try and figure it out himself."

"No, no ki attacks."

The group turned to Geta, who was sitting on a rock and staring at the horizon pensively.

"No ki attacks," he repeated, not looking at them, "Not transformed, it's too destructive. And stuff lives in these rocks."

"I wouldn't have pegged you for an environmentalist," Yamcha joked, but Geta just shrugged.

"Some of the stuff around here's supposed to be good to eat. No point in wasting food."

"Oh, come on, Geta," Bulma rolled her eyes, "I'm not thrilled at the idea of Kakarrot spitting ki either, but you have to admit-"

"NO!" Geta stood and spun in one swift movement, flaring his ki to its full level for once and scowling ferociously. "No ki attacks tonight from them _or_ me! It is _too dangerous_! Even without ki it's too big and strong, too easy to break things you shouldn't!" he turned his full attention on his fellow saiyans, "You swear to me now you won't or I knock you both out, stick you in your ship, and launch you back into space! Swear it!"

…it was easy to forget just how strong Geta really was. He kept a tight lid on his power for the most part and tended to be fairly amiable. It was easy to forget he could play the 'because I said so and no one can stop me' card, because he almost never did – Bulma got the feeling this might even have been his first time using it.

He was doing a good job of it, though – his ki forming a corona around him, his expression cold, looming over them from the top of a rock – and the other guys were watching him warily.

Bulma wasn't impressed. She was well aware that all of the people there could kill her with no effort – being able to do so in a few milliseconds as opposed to a few seconds didn't really throw her. Besides, if you let a guy get it into his head that you were scared of him, he might think this gave him the right to boss you around, and _that_ went against the natural order of things, because obviously it was _Bulma_ who was supposed to be in charge.

Besides, she'd noticed something she didn't think the others had; not only did Geta have his tail wrapped so tightly around his waist that it looked like it was cutting off blood-flow, it was floofed to twice its normal size.

She preferred to be brash, it came more naturally to her, but Bulma could be quiet when the situation called for it, and right now what was needed was a 'woman's touch,' ala her mom during her occasional flashes of spooky levels of insight.

Walking slowly up to the flame-haired saiyan, she ignored his warning growl, along with the worried noises Yamcha and Raditz made and halted in front of his rock, looking up at him, arms folded. "Geta," she said quietly, "Enough stories. What are you so scared of?"

Geta blinked… and just like that the aura of power vanished and he slumped. "You," he whispered, wrapping his arms around himself like he was cold, "And Yamcha. And seeing those expressions on your faces."

"What expressions?"

"Like they had at the dojo the first time they saw me do a kata. Like I'm a monster. I can't- I used to be okay, being alone most of the time," he looked away, "Then you came along and- I can't anymore. I don't want you to leave."

Bulma reached up and pulled him off his perch and into her arms, hooking her chin on top of his head. "You haven't scared me off yet," she said firmly, "And maybe if you told me what was going to happen instead of being all vague and mysterious, it would help."

There was a moment of silence where she thought he wasn't going to answer. Then-

"It's why I've always got an umbrella," Geta admitted quietly, "And why I was always so insistent that other humans had tails. Because if they had tails and cut them off, then maybe that was why they could look at the full moon without changing. Because if they didn't change at all, if it was just me… then what did that make me? I mean, I've read about werewolves but this… it's different."

Bulma brought a hand up to stroke his hair and felt him relax against her slightly. "Don't sell us short. We handled finding out you're an alien prince-"

"'mnotaprince."

"-an alien," she amended, deciding to let that slide for now, "I think I can handle whatever this is. Can't speak for Yamcha, of course – he's a wuss."

Geta snickered in spite of himself. "Yamcha _is_ a wuss."

"I am not!" the man in question snapped indignantly, "I just have a healthy sense of self-preservation!"

"Unlike them," Raditz muttered, then continued more loudly, "You weren't this concerned when you told us about the moon this morning!"

Geta shrugged, grinning weakly. "I am very good at pretending things don't bother me right up until the point I am forced to confront them. Like the fact that I turn into a giant monkey if I look at the full moon." The last part came out in a rush, "And there seemed a higher probability that you guys did, too, what with the tails and not-human and all."

Bulma blinked and looked down at the top of Geta's head. "What."

" **Oozaru** , not monkey, _Oozaru_ ," Raditz growled, "Great ape if you prefer, but _not_ monkey!"

"Yeah, see, I've been thinking about that," Geta turned to look at Raditz, "And 'monkey' actually makes more sense, because apes don't have tails and we do."

The taller saiyan stared at him for a moment, then buried his face in his hands. "The three shittiest saiyans in the universe, and _we're_ the survivors…"

"Hey, I'm an awesome saiyan!" Kakarrot protested.

Raditz glowered at his brother from between his fingers. "Ever fought off an army on your own?"

"No…"

"Ever led an incursion onto another planet?"

"No…"

"Ever murdered someone in cold blood?"

"Dagore's _teeth_ , no!"

"Like I said, shitty saiyan," Raditz nodded, "And no swearing."

"As fascinating as all this is, can we get back to the turning into a giant ape-monkey thing?" Bulma interjected, " 'cause that's sending up some big, red 'bull _shit_ ' messages!"

"It's _called_ the Oozaru form," Raditz growled, "And it's the secret strength of the saiyan race, unlocked only when we look at a full moon or the appropriate equivalent. Our strength, our speed, our size, our power – all increase tenfold in this form. It's the gift of Shimeihan, and thus we take her form in that state, in her honour."

Bulma shoved a hand through Vegeta's hair, making a gap to glare at Raditz through. "That last bit sounds like a lot of religious mumbo-jumbo to me."

The tall saiyan folded his arms and scowled at her, but, to his surprise, Yamcha beat him to the punch.

"Don't mock their beliefs, B," he said quietly but firmly, "We've seen Shenlong, and you know what Geta's capable of, and it's obviously based on _something_ from the way Geta's acting. And even if it wasn't," he frowned, "Don't mock."

The blue-haired woman huffed, but turned her attention to Geta. "So, you gonna join in this Oozaru thing or just watch?"

Geta bit his lip and shrugged.

"You should join us tonight; I can show you how it works better," Raditz offered, voice calm.

Kakarrot had been watching the horizon for the moon to rise, but now he turned to Raditz. "So are you going to teach me the ki-blast from the mouth or not?"

"Not tonight," Raditz said firmly, "The prince has forbade it."

" 'm not a prince!"

"Then don't act like one."

Geta bristled. "I'm _not_!"

Raditz gave him an unimpressed look and began to list things off on his fingers. "Giving shelter to your subjects, keeping said subjects in line, protecting your territory, fighting all takers, enforcing your commands with your power-"

"Shut up!" Geta snapped, annoyed.

Raditz gave him a shit-eating grin. "Is that an order?"

" _Kami_ , if I do this whole ozaru thing with you guys will you _please_ give the prince thing a break?!" Geta glared at the older man. Raditz shrugged but nodded. "Fine!" extricating himself at last from Bulma's arms, he made his way behind some rocks, grumbling to himself as he went. "Five years, _flawlessly_ avoided this- secret my WHOLE life- mckinfriggingrrrrrrr!"

There came rustling sounds and Bulma stomped after him. "Dammit, Geta, get back here and explain what you meant by- _WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING WITH YOUR CLOTHES_?!"

"Taking them off so they don't get ruined," came the far too reasonable-sounding response.

"I- I- _cover yourself_ , at least!"

"No. I came back here out of consideration for the 'delicate female sensibilities' you claim to have. If you come after me, what you see is your problem."

"Why you- pervert!"

"Hey, _you're_ the one who came after _me_ , and _you're_ the one, I might add, who has yet to look away. How does that make _me_ a pervert?"

"It's different if a girl sees a guy!"

"That sounds like a really stupid double standard to me."

*SLAP*

"OW!"

"Is your hand okay? That looks like it hurts-"

"DON'T GET SO CLOSE WHEN YOU AREN'T WEARING ANYTHING!"

"Geez, okay, touchy…"

Bulma came out from behind the rocks, red-faced, fuming, and clutching her hand. "Not a word from any of you," she growled at the three onlookers.

Whether the older of the two _would_ have commented (and, from the look on Yamcha's face, the answer was probably 'yes') became a question for the ages, because at that moment Kakarrot pointed excitedly towards the horizon.

"The moon's coming up!"

Geta poked his head out from behind the rocks. "Don't you two need to take your clothes off, too?"

"Ours stretch to accommodate the change," Raditz replied before catching Kakarrot with his tail and flying about fifty feet further into the desert to a large empty patch. "Stay over there," he called when Yamcha moved to follow, "Unless you want to get stepped on."

Geta sulked his way over to join the other saiyans, tail twitching crossly and as naked as Bulma had said he was, though he did keep his back to them and his hands in front of himself. Raditz didn't look at him, though he grunted in acknowledgement.

Yamcha went and sat next to Bulma where she was perched on a rock. "What do you think's going to happen?"

She snorted inelegantly. "It's probably more like werewolves than Geta thinks – I don't think he's ever met one before. They'll see the moon, get a little bigger and hairier, and then they'll do whatever wereapes do when they're transformed."

"I dunno," Yamcha's gaze was drawn to where the moon was a half-disc rising slowly from the horizon, "Geta's not stupid. If it was just a werewolf thing, I don't think he'd be so bothered. I mean, one of my classmates when you made me go to high school was a werewolf."

"Who, that Jetta girl?"

"No, she went to a different high school, and she was just a bitch."

Bulma snickered at that. "Still sore at her, I take it?"

Yamcha folded his arms around one knee and scowled. "She could have just _told me_ her suspicions, she didn't have to make it traumatic!"

They sat in silence for a few minutes as the moon finished rising. For a moment afterwards, nothing happened. Then Yamcha tensed and sat up straight as he felt a spike in the saiyans' ki. Then-

It was-

Wow.

No wonder Geta hadn't wanted to tell anyone about this.

Yamcha gulped and realized his hands were shaking. He'd never felt ki this great before – hadn't thought anyone _could_ have this much ki! And that wasn't the only crazy thing about it; now he understood why Raditz had warned him about being stepped on.

A distant little part of his mind pointed out that it was interesting how alike the three of them looked like this. Other than size and Raditz's still-crazy mane, the physical dissimilarities had been greatly reduced. Or, no – there was another difference. Raditz and Kakarrot both had a restless look to them, as though they wanted to move. Geta, on the other hand, was still, watching him and Bulma, waiting for a reaction-

Bulma!

Yamcha had completely forgotten about her – she was probably terrified! He turned to look at his friend and found the blue-haired woman was staring at the saiyans, slack-jawed. As he watched, she swallowed a few times, then managed to choke out, "Geta? Is that _you_?"

The giant, hairy ape-creature Geta had become scratched the back of its head and looked away, nodding sheepishly, and suddenly it was easy to see his friend in this impossible form. Something in Yamcha relaxed a little at this. It was still Geta. They were still _them_.

Bulma, however, looked like she had gone absolutely livid. Red in the face, she sprang to her feet, pointing accusingly at the three saiyans. "NO! This is **not okay**! This is just- And the mass- DAMMIT, I AM THE ONLY ONE WHO IS ALLOWED TO ABUSE SCIENCE LIKE THIS!"

Geta backpedalled as the tiny woman advanced on him, and suddenly the whole thing went from strange and scary to completely ridiculous. If he hadn't been sitting already, Yamcha was pretty sure he would have had to after this, he was laughing so hard. Geta was huge and could have destroyed Bulma with ease even _before_ he'd transformed. Now, with the power to probably destroy the _planet_ at his fingertips, he was fleeing before the wrath of a woman who could barely throw a decent punch! Granted, said woman was also Bulma Briefs, and Bulma was legitimately terrifying, but even so…

"Karn's _first_ , Vegeta, just tell her to stop if she's bothering you!"

Everyone's head except Kakarrot's snapped towards Raditz at that, and Bulma pointed her accusing finger at him now.

"You can _talk_ like that?!"

Raditz frowned at her. It was suitably menacing, even if it did bounce right off of Bulma. "Of course we can still talk. Why wouldn't we be able to?"

"But- snouts- and-!" Bulma sputtered, looking indignant. She turned to glare at Geta, who actually took another step back. "If he can talk, _you_ can talk, so quit with the silent act!"

Geta nodded, then winced, then opened his mouth to answer. A few grunts came out, but no words. Frowning, he tried again, then turned to look at Raditz, puzzled, when it produced no better results.

The enormous saiyan put his face in his hands. Again. Seriously, if he kept that up he was going to leave indents on his palms… "Try mentally, like you were working on with Kakarrot and me the other day."

Geta nodded, and he and Kakarrot stared at each other for a few moments, during which Yamcha caught his breath and finally managed to calm down somewhat.

"He says he can't talk," Kakarrot finally announced, "He's trying, but the words won't come out."

Raditz growled to himself, but didn't appear overly surprised (though it was a little hard to tell), "Probably another side effect from the chemicals. Godspat incompetents. Come on, Kakarrot – we'll move further into the desert so we can spar safely. Are you coming, Vegeta?"

The (relatively) shorter saiyan thought for a moment, then shook his head, though he gave Raditz a warning look.

"I know, your highness, no ki blasts," Raditz waved a hand, then smirked when Geta growled at him, presumably at the title. "Sorry, your highness, I didn't quite catch that – could you speak a little more clearly?" he sniggered when Geta was unable to do more than grunt in frustration. "If you say so, your highness. Come on, Kakarrot – the _prince_ won't be joining us tonight."

Geta sat down facing away from the other saiyans in a decidedly ridiculous sulk, watching them move off towards the open sands where nothing much lived. Bulma stomped over to him and proceeded to thoroughly chew Geta out for infringing on her science-breaking territory. He just sat there and took it, nodding or shaking his head contritely at appropriate intervals. Yamcha wandered over as she wound down, and she turned on him, pointing at Geta angrily.

"He's just sitting there and taking it! He _never_ just sits there and takes it! Make him fight back!"

"Bulma, I know it's hard, but could you try to be just a little bit reasonable?" Yamcha asked, half amused, "The guy can't talk at the moment, and he's too big to be able to write or anything."

" **Fine** ," Bulma huffed, sitting down as well, "But we're fighting about this when you shrink down again!" she added, pointing at Geta, who nodded in far too cheerful a manner to Yamcha's mind.

"You two are weird," the ex-bandit said drily as he sat down next to Bulma, looking at the moon. They were quite for a few minutes. "My life didn't used to be this strange, you know," he finally said, "Up until I met you, Bulma, things were pretty normal."

Geta grunted, and when they looked up he jabbed a thumb at his chest, then held up two fingers. ' _Me too_.'

Bulma rolled her eyes, "Oh please – you were a successful bandit at age sixteen, and _you_ are an alien living on a planet that is not technically your home world! You guys were freaks way before I came along."

"Maybe," Yamcha replied neutrally, "But you have to admit, things always get way more complicated and strange when you're involved."

"Oh they do not – and Geta, stop laughing, yes, I can tell you're laughing at me, stop it, stop it now!"

They continued conversing for awhile, Geta joining in as well as he could without any means of verbal or written communication and a far more limited range of facial expressions than he was used to. It was amazing how quickly you could get used to things, like one of your friends turning into a gigantic ape-creature.

They must have fallen asleep at some point, because eventually Yamcha was woken up by Bulma yelling.

"GETA GET OFF ME, _YOU ARE STILL NAKED!_ "

"Huh- bwuh?"

"OFF! OFF NOW!"

"Mrmph…"

Yamcha sighed and stretched, then went to go grab Geta's clothes from where they'd been stashed the previous night before Bulma had an aneurism.

OoOoOoOoO

 _That thing about 'it's okay if a girl sees a guy but not the other way around' comes up fairly often in anime, and it annoys me a lot – it's such a weird, sexist double standard._

 _This was an interesting piece to write, since it was another about Geta being forced to confront one of his deepest fears. (laughs) You guys are actually finding all this out way sooner than I did – this is one of the last things I wrote for this universe. Why he makes up stories, why he flees from strangers, why he doesn't like cities, why he's convinced humans have tails… I didn't know the answers to any of these questions when I started writing, they really were just character quirks. It was an interesting surprise to find out that not only did Geta have reasons for each of these behaviours, they were pretty solid ones._

 _Kakarrot's better at telepathy than Raditz, which is why he was working with Geta on it. Also, Bulma, I love you, you crazy, fearless science-lady, you, you are so much fun to write!_


End file.
